Tuesday 27 November 2012

Book ~ "Dangerous Deception" (2012) Cindy McDonald

From Goodreads ~ Old age ain't for sissies!

Vic Deveaux’s glory days as a winning jockey have ended, but he refuses to accept that pile of horse hockey! 


When the West family asks Vic to take an easier position at their Thoroughbred farm, Westwood, he becomes enraged and teams up with two greedy stable hands in a scheme to kidnap the youngest son, Shane. 


Things turn ugly when Vic discovers that his new-found friends have murder on their minds. Suddenly Vic finds himself between a rock and a hard place. He has betrayed his good friend, Eric West, but will he participate in his son’s murder as well? 


Not content to sit at home and wait for her men to bring her brother home, Kate West convinces homicide detective, Carl Lugowski, to check out a hunch at an old abandoned mansion. Soon they’re trapped in a hornet’s nest of a notorious biker gang. 


Oh yeah, Vic’s deception has placed the West family in more danger than they know what to do with!


This story happens over two days.  Shane has a problem with Martin, one of his father's ranch hands ... he's abusive to the animals, is lazy and drinks on the job.  When Shane calls him on it, things get violent and Martin is fired.  But now Martin is mad.  He talks two of the older ranch hands into helping him kidnap Shane for a $500,000 ransom.  But little do they know that Martin doesn't plan on letting Shane go and plans on killing him.  One of the ranch hands pulled into the scheme is Vic, the ranch owner's longtime friend, who thought he was getting demoted because he's old.  The abandoned mansion where Shane is held is also the gathering place for a biker gang who show up to party.  The elderly daughter of the long dead owner of the mansion secretly still lives in the mansion because she has no where else to go.

It sounded like an intriguing story but for some reason it just missed the mark for me.

I could feel the love in the West family ... they did care and would do anything for each other, even putting themselves in danger.

I found there were so many people in the beginning and I had a hard time keeping everyone straight.  Once the story got going, though, I became less confused.

I wish Vic had had a bit more trust and respect for Eric.  Considering how long they'd been friends, I wish Vic had given Eric more of a chance rather than jumping to conclusions.  I did appreciate, though, that Vic realized his mistake and tried to make it right.

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